


12

by glowingGalaxies



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017), PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures
Genre: A) it’s a nice rounded number, B) it leaves plenty of fun adventures for the triplets to have instead, Gen, I PROMISE they'll all get to see Donald again he's only 12 years in the future, I have. thought it through, PKNA 10 is about a year after Donald first met Uno and became the custodian of Ducklair Tower, also as more characters appear I'll tag them, and C) it’s my fic and I can do Whatever I Want, and I PROMISE I'll explain how no one's able to recognize time travel is what happened, but we won't get that explanation for a while bc it'll be a while before they see him again, for the sake of this fic, oh! and I’m going with a DT 2017 approach to HDL’s personalities, so they’re a little more distinct, which is why I also tagged this as DT 2017, while still having Donald and Uno know each other well and be friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-07-29 18:22:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16269803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowingGalaxies/pseuds/glowingGalaxies
Summary: When he couldn't find Donald anywhere in the city, he started to worry. He could access anything on the planet, so there was no reason he wouldn't be able to locate him that didn't suggest something had gone wrong.But it was when Donald's nephews came snooping around the tower that he was certain something terrible had happened to his friend. The nephews had never spent any significant amount of time here, as Donald tried to keep them as far out of his PK business as possible, so if they'd found their way here they must be searching for him too.Or, possibly even worse, searching for Paperinik. Or “both” of them.--------------Based on that classic PK comic, "Escape to the Future", where Donald accidentally travels 12 years into the future and HDL become the Duck Guard in Paperinik's absence, except set in the PKNA universe instead! (you should be able to understand what's going on even without reading PKNA, if you want, though; HDL don't know what's going on either, so everything gets explained!)





	1. Evronians?

**Author's Note:**

> hey, if you're interested in reading the classic PK comic this is based on, here's a link to a translated version of it! http://land-of-birds-and-comics.tumblr.com/post/178156365845/its-here-now-nobody-has-to-wonder-anymore-i
> 
> ((also, this is my first time writing Uno, so hopefully the characterization's alright?? please let me know, even if I'm actually doing a terrible job or something, haha))

Donald hadn't answered when he tried to call him, which in and of itself wasn't something that would warrant suspicion. Donald had to sleep several hours a day, after all; he’d missed calls before.

Paperinik neglecting to act when an Evronian patrol started causing trouble downtown wasn't, at least at first, a particular cause for concern either. He could be rather petty, and Angus' report last night somehow managed to focus on slandering PK even more than usual. Maybe he was trying to prove a point, and would arrive at the last minute to save the day.

When he couldn't find Donald anywhere in the city, he started to worry. He could access anything on the planet, so there was no reason he wouldn't be able to locate him that didn't suggest something had gone wrong.

But it was when Donald's nephews came snooping around the tower, almost a week after the Evronian attack, that he was certain something terrible had happened to his friend. The nephews had never spent any significant amount of time here, as Donald tried to keep them as far out of his PK business as possible, so if they'd found their way here they must be searching for him too.

Or, possibly even worse, searching for Paperinik. Or “both” of them.

While he thought he'd be able to keep an eye on them- he'd been able to keep Master Ducklair away from Donald for nearly the entirety of his visit, before he needed to pretend to be shut off- three ducklings proved to be much more of a challenge to track. They had split up to look around, and dividing his attention between them to keep them out of anything Donald wouldn't want them to find was easier said than done.

Caught up in preventing Dewey from entering one of the passages to the basement and Huey from breaking into Channel 00's offices (whether he was aware that's what he was doing or not), Louie managed to slip into one of the secret entrances to the 151th floor Uno had added for when Donald needed to slip away from someone unpleasant (such as Angus, or his uncle).

And now Louie was up here. Donald won’t be happy, if he gets back.

When. When he gets back.

For now, he was going to have to deal with the problem in the form of a small duck wearing green- Louie had the best taste in color choice, if nothing else- standing in front of him.

"What _is_ this floor?" Louie asked aloud, although he didn't appear to have noticed Uno's visual projection yet. 

"The floor previously known as the secret extra floor of Ducklair Tower," he said, startling Louie, who spun around trying to locate him. He moved his main display so Louie could easily see him, and while he was at it, shifted some parts of the building so Dewey and Huey would find their way up to his floor without breaking into anything dangerous.

"Are you some kind of computer?" Louie asked.

"An artificial intelligence, if you don't mind! To be exact, I'm the most powerful, versatile, and marvelous artificial intelligence ever to be built on this planet!"

That was the same thing he'd said to PK when he first snuck into Ducklair Tower a little over a year ago; somehow it seemed fitting to greet his nephews in the same way. Not that Louie would've recognized that.

As he spoke, Huey found his way into the room. "Did you say you're an artificial intelligence? That's amazing! Do you control this whole tower?"

"Yes! I can see everything going on within this building, and even rearrange it if I feel so inclined."

"Is that why there was suddenly that new door that led me up here?"

"You're just letting him up here? I thought you said this floor was secret!"

"You would've told them as soon as you left. This way, I can talk to all three of you directly."

And, speaking of all three of them... "Do you know our uncle? He's Paperinik, right?" Dewey asked, running into the room. Huey and Louie gave him disapproving looks as he joined them. Evidently, telling unfamiliar AIs their suspicions about secret identities hadn’t been part of their plan.

Well, Donald could fix this situation when he got back. For the time being, he was starting to get lonely, and maybe they'd know someone Donald would trust to make a good substitute hero.

"Yes, your uncle is Paperinik. We've been working together since he became the caretaker of Ducklair Tower. Unfortunately, since he disappeared-"

"Do you know anything about that? We've been trying to figure out where he went all week!" Dewey interrupted.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I have no idea where he is, or what happened to him. None of my efforts to locate him have found any traces."

"Last thing we knew, he was visiting Uncle Scrooge. That was last week." Huey frowned. 

Louie matched his expression, a reminder they were triplets. "Do you... think something bad happened to him?"

"I can't say either way. Of course, I hope not, but while stranger things have happened than someone vanishing completely off the face of this planet, I don't want to get your hopes up too much. It's also entirely possible he's been taken by the Evronians, or worse."

"... Evronians?"

"Are you talking about those purple monster things Paperinik is always fighting?"

"Yes. They're aliens that feed on emotions, and usually your uncle is the one who holds off their invasion plans. As long as he's gone, a substitute hero of Duckburg is probably going to be needed."

"Uncle Donald won't like that very much..." 

"I'm sure he'd hate Earth being enslaved by the Evronians even more. Trust me, I hate to do this as much as you, but I can't fight them myself."

Suddenly, Dewey's face lit up. "What if the three of us were the substitute Paperiniks?"

"Hey, yeah, Uncle Donald trusts us, and we could totally be superheroes!"

He couldn't stop the grimace that immediately appeared on his face. "If Donald was going to be mad that I enlisted a substitute hero, he'd be absolutely furious when he found out I let the three of you be the ones running into danger."

"But we can handle it!"

"And we already know all this secret stuff now!" Uno had to stifle a laugh at the idea that _that_ was the end of the secrets.

Instead, he sighed. "I suppose you can try," he started, and the boys began to cheer prematurely. " _But_ ," he raised his volume enough to grab their attention back, "When he asks, we're all in agreement that this was your idea and not my fault whatsoever."

The boys nodded vigorously, although Uno suspected they would've reacted the same for nearly any conditions he imposed.

"So do we get our own costumes?"

"I want a visor!!"

"Can I have cool laser blasters?"

"Calm down, I'm working on the costumes as we speak. In the meantime, let me tell you about the Evronians, so you'll have some idea of what you're up against."

By the time he finished his explanation (which wasn't even that long), Huey seemed to be the only one still paying attention. Dewey had found the Total Immersion Interface system, and Louie was disinterestedly watching Ottoman Empire on his phone. Having a low attention span for admittedly boring- but very important- topics must run in the family.

Luckily, he'd also finished their costumes. It was easy enough to scale down the original PK suit's measurements, and create three smaller replicas, but he decided to go a step further and individualize some aspects of each of their costumes, so they'd still be distinct from each other and their uncle.

"Wow, is this my costume?" Huey asked, carefully taking it from him. 

"Your costumes are each equipped slightly differently," Uno began, getting the other two ducklings' attention again and giving them their costumes. "Divided between Huey's special gloves and boots are all the same functions PK's shield was equipped with, including its resistance to coolflaming. Dewey's visor protects his head, but everything else is part of his smaller shield, which is actually closer to a boomerang in combat function. And Louie has wrist-mounted blasters instead of a shield, though they both have all the same capabilities as the shield and aren't limited to just lasers."

"And the hats?" Dewey asked, already wearing his costume.

"The costumes were too empty without something on your heads, but Paperinik's sailor hat felt too personal to the original costume. I modeled them after Huey's cap instead."

"Why don't I have some kind of weapon?" Huey asked, concerned.

"I assumed you'd want to keep your hands free. You can take notes and access files on your gloves, including your Junior Woodchuck Guidebook if you feel so inclined, but they're also entirely functional as a weapon of their own."

"Ooo!"

"So when do we fight those aliens?" Louie asked, glancing up from his phone.

“We’ll have to wait until their next attack, but that gives the three of you a chance to get used to your new suits in the meantime!”


	2. PKNA #11 - "Urk"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys get their first hero adventure in the form of several more disappearances, a strange man, and weird time-space anomalies!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter ended up WAY longer than the first one. like?? three times longer??? this is fine. tbh future chapters are probably going to stick to being more around this length bc PNKA issues are. pretty long, comparatively speaking. so.... yay?

Duckburg stayed mostly quiet for another week, with only minor crimes that PK wouldn't have been needed for anyway. That gave the nephews plenty of time to practice, but unfortunately also plenty of time to get bored. Technically, they were supposed to be staying with Daisy until Donald came back- Scrooge was too busy searching for him to keep an eye on them- but they spent most of their after school time wandering the Tower instead.

But then the disappearances started.

Or, as far as the Duck family was concerned, continued- the nephews initially seemed convinced that if they found the culprit they'd find their uncle, and this was their first big chance to be heroes.

Uno's best efforts still couldn't find anything for Donald or the other missing people. Scans, hacking into cameras, nothing was producing any results.

The first lead they found came while the boys were having lunch at Ducklair Tower one afternoon, discussing the case.

"At least the city seems to be safe during the day," Uno started.

"Yeah, all the attacks have been at night, right?" Dewey asked. 

Uno nodded. "And with how quickly the mysterious kidnapper strikes and vanishes, it would seem that they have some sort of vehicle."

"A couple policemen were the last ones to disappear, right? It's gotta be something with enough space for them." 

"Maybe it's a whole group of people working together?"

"I don't know, I wish we could-" Dewey was cut off by a voice coming from... outside the 151st floor?

"Okay, Dexter, I'm ready!" 

Lunch forgotten, the triplets went over to the large, one-way window and glanced up. There appeared to be two workers not too far above them, setting up to clean the windows.

The workers talked for a bit while they set up, but before they could start cleaning, a flock of birds flew out of the gargoyle head on the side of the Tower, startling the smaller worker. He lost his balance, and before the other worker (Dexter?) could react, dropped off the roof.

"Uno, do something!" Huey started to say, but before the AI could act, Dexter grabbed the other end of the rope he'd just tied to the roof and dove after his friend. With almost superhuman agility, Dexter caught the other worker and swung back, flipping and landing perfectly.

"That's impossible!" Huey said, shocked, as Dexter comforted his friend. He turned away from the window. "Uno, there's no way he could have done that, right?!"

"You saw it with your own eyes, Huey! And my external sensors captured every movement."

"Maybe you should look into him! If he was able to do all that, he can't be just anybody, right?"

"The easiest way to find out is to enter the database of the Highclean Company... There! Meet Dexter Brundle, a very unique individual-" Uno pulled the data on him up onto the large screen for the triplets to see- "Who also happens to be an impeccable impostor!"

Dewey squinted at the screen. "What do you mean?"

"Look at the ID picture and the current one. That's not the same guy!"

"Exactly! I knew the real Dexter Brundle well- he was the foreman in charge of the construction of Ducklair Tower! Later on, he went through some rough times, lost his job, and disappeared."

"Until now!" 

"I'm not sure how this guy could be related to the kidnappings, but this is pretty weird all the same. Maybe we- or, I guess, the Duck Guard- should pay him a visit?"

"I still think 'Duck Avenger Avengers' would've been a better name," Dewey grumbled.

"We voted, and Duck Guard won!"

Suddenly, a shrill beeping noise came from somewhere in the room. The boys looked around, confused.

"That's your uncle's pager," Uno clarified for them. "If you recall, he got a job at Channel 00 not too long ago, and it seems he's needed."

"Don't they know he's vanished?"

"If the person paging him is the same one who usually calls for his help, I doubt he's even noticed the absence yet."

Dewey headed for the elevator, while his brothers just watched. "What? I'm gonna go see what he wants. We can't visit Dexter's house until tonight anyway, right?"

Huey glanced at Louie, who shrugged.

"I guess you have a point," Huey said, joining him in the elevator. Louie sighed, and followed.

The person who paged Donald ended up being Angus Fangus, who the nephews recognized from those news reports that always seemed to tie into conspiracy theories about the 'Paperinik menace'. Immediately they regretted coming downstairs.

"Since when do we let kids in our office?" Angus asked no one in particular.

"We're helping out our uncle, Donald," Louie responded easily.

Huey had to think his answer over a bit more, before adding, "He was one of the people who was kidnapped, we decided to help out with his job while the police look for him."

Angus seemed satisfied with that answer, though it appeared to grab the attention of someone in pink sitting at the desk behind him. She stared at them for a few seconds, blinked, then asked, "You're Donald's nephews? Can I get a moment to talk to one of you?"

The ducklings glanced between each other. "Louie, you stay with her, we'll help Angus."

Angus pointed to a huge stack of VHS tapes sitting on the desk, and started listing off the various studios they needed to go to. Louie barely had time to ask him who even used VHS tapes anymore before the lady in pink- who had apparently walked over to him- pulled him over to the side of her desk with a surprisingly strong grip.

"I'm a friend of your uncle's, my name's Lyla. I've known him for a while now, and I know him well enough to know he wouldn't have been kidnapped like that. What's really going on?" 

She gave Louie such a pointed look as she said it, he almost wondered if she _knew_. "We weren't lying, he really did disappear! It was about a week before the kidnappings started. We've been... taking care of the Tower while he's gone," Louie answered, hoping if she _did_ know she'd pick up on what he was trying to say.

"Oh, so you... _know_ the Duck Avenger too, then?" She asked. "Everyone knows they’re best friends."

Louie nodded. "If you wanted to tell him something, we could pass on a message." Man, he was pretty good at this. He should be a secret agent or something. Although that'd be a lot of work...

"Well, if you know someONE who works with him, just tell him I recently picked up on a large, anomalous tachyonic wave that was more intense that anything I've measured before. He should know what that means."

Well, it was a relief she didn't expect _him_ to know. That was the kind of nerd thing Huey specialized in. "I'll, uh, go let him know."

She smiled. "It was nice to meet you, Louie!" He gave a halfhearted wave, then headed back to the elevator.

"Hey, Uno, what's a-"

"Tachyon?" Uno finished for him, as the elevator doors opened. Huey and Dewey had apparently beaten him to the secret floor.

"Uno delivered everything for us, so we were sitting here listening in on your conversation with Lyla," Dewey explained sheepishly.

"That's not weird at all," Louie responded, sarcasm in full effect.

Uno laughed. "I can see everything that happens in this building, Louie. How do you think I keep an eye on your uncle?" 

"Whatever. So who _was_ that lady?"

"Lyla is a time police android from the future," Uno said, pulling up video of her and Paperinik working together on the big screen. "She's here to keep track of unauthorized time travelers. Your uncle has worked with her in the past; she figured out his identity easily."

"So she'll probably figure out ours no problem, considering Louie basically just told her," Dewey muttered.

"Hey! How else was I supposed to get her to tell me about the tachy-whatevers?"

"Tachyons are theoretical particles that're faster than light." As he guessed, at least Huey knew what was going on.

"And a large tachyonic wave is very suspicious," Uno added. "Usually there's only trace amounts of tachyon decay when someone time travels. An intense wave like Lyla sensed has to mean something huge happened."

"Maybe it's related to the kidnappings, then?"

"I'm sure it is, although how is still unclear. Perhaps your investigation into our friend Dexter tonight will connect some pieces."

And so the Duck Guard went out for the first time. Uno suggested inviting Lyla to go with them, in case it _was_ related to the tachyonic wave, but the triplets insisted that having too many people around would be a problem as they were trying to snoop.

They refused to admit it, but they also sort of felt like this was their first mission to prove they could do this, and sending a future droid in with them felt like cheating.

The three heroes (who had settled on Rosso, Blu, and Verde as their individual names, keeping with Paperinik's Italian name theme while avoiding the confusion that going by the one, two, and three written on their individual costumes would cause) decided to split up. It'd worked great for investigating Ducklair Tower, hadn't it?

The house- more like a mansion, actually- was huge, but as the boys quickly found, it seemed kind of... empty. Not very lived in. Like Dexter had moved in less than a month ago. Maybe even around the same time the kidnappings started...?

There'd definitely be plenty of space to hide a bunch of kidnapped people here, Dewey (or, Blu, since he was in costume and had to get used to that name) could tell. If he couldn't find Dexter, maybe he'd at least find one of the citizens that went missing.

... Or a weird, spooky basement with a glowing spear thing mounted on the wall and a map of Duckburg. That had all the places where people had gone missing marked with pictures of them. He guessed that was cool too.

"Uno, are you seeing this?" He whispered, as quietly as he could manage. His visor gave the AI a live feed of everything he was seeing, which apparently was something Uno wished the PK costume could do too. The shield wasn’t a great vantage point, or something like that.

"I sure am! But you've got something headed your way, hero."

Oh, great. He spun around just in time for Dexter to reach the doorway. "So you’re the one behind the kidnappings, Mr. Brundle!" He tried to sound as heroic- and PK-like- as possible, but it wasn't easy, because he was also realizing just how huge this guy was. Like, three times his size. 

Dexter said something that just sounded like nonsense- was that another language? Like a... future language or whatever? Isn't he supposed to be from the future or something?- then grabbed his spear from the mount on the wall.

"You... want to fight? Okay, yeah, I can do this!" Blu muttered, half to himself and half to Dexter. "Hey, is your name actually even Dexter? You don't really seem like a Dexter to me."

The guy-that-might-not-be-named-Dexter fired a blast of energy from his spear, which Blu narrowly managed to dodge. It blew a hole through the wall behind them. Yikes.

"Hey, if this isn't your house, you should probably take better care of it!"

"How do you know my name?!" Dexter demanded. So maybe that was his name after all?

He fired another blast from his spear. Blu managed to grab his mini-shield-boomerang thing just in time to block it- he should've already had it in his hand- but the impact of the energy on the shield was still enough to throw him through the hole into the next room.

"How do you know my secret?!" Dexter shouted again.

Huey- er, uh, Rosso- ran into the room. FINALLY someone heard the noise this guy was making. "We're looking for the kidnapper!"

That got Dexter to stop. "Kidnapper...?"

"Yeah, y'know, the people that've been disappearing? Like on your weird map in the other room?" Blu crossed his arms. 

"I'm not a kidnapper! I've been trying to _stop_ the creature! And it's-" He abruptly froze. "I have to go."

The two ducklings stared dumbly as he bolted from the room. What were they going to do, though? They wouldn't have been able to stop him anyway.

"So... now what?" Louie- Verde- asked casually, strolling into the room a moment later.

Rosso threw his hands into the air. "You could've helped us back there!"

"Relax, I did. I put a tracking device on his belt as he went past me in the hallway. So, like I said... now what?"

Blu tried- and failed- to stifle a yawn. Uno's voice came in through his visor. "It's getting pretty late, you three should probably go back to Daisy's and get some sleep. I can analyze the data you've gotten, in the meantime."

"Geez, since when were _you_ stepping in for our uncle?" Blu grumbled, knowing fully well Uno could still hear him.

"He's right, though. We have school tomorrow," Rosso said, sounding tired himself.

Reluctantly, the Duck Guard turned in for the night.

But the very next night, they were back on the case, the news having reported another disappearance that morning. They still didn't know if it was Dexter or not, but they didn't know a lot of things.

Uno suggested actually calling Lyla to help them this time, and the triplets relented. They met up with her not too far from the Tower.

"So you're acting in PK's place until he gets back? What are your names?" She asked.

"Well, we're calling the whole team the 'Duck Guard', but individually we're Rosso, Blu, and Verde."

"We decided to stick with the Italian naming scheme." Louie answered, before she could ask.

Lyla nodded. "That makes sense. So we're looking for this Dexter guy?"

"I don't think that's actually his name," Blu added, not particularly helpfully.

"We have a tracking device on him, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Have you figured out what's up with the tachyon thing?"

"No, we've only had problems with one unauthorized chrononaut around here before, someone named the Raider. But he's locked in a chronostatic cell now, so it can't be him. I could contact headquarters to see if they know anything, but I'd like to get more information first."

"Well, we better find Dexter and see if we can get some answers, then!"

The Duck Guard headed to Dexter's location via the rooftops, while Lyla followed down on the ground. 

When they got there, they found Dexter was already watching someone else- a man walking his dog home, on an otherwise deserted street. Lyla's voice came through the communicator- "I'm sensing traces of the tachyonic wave again; it looks like your friend up there's the chrononaut!"

"Hey, Dexter, leave that guy alone!" Blu shouted at him, before they could make any kind of plan. Of course.

That startled Dexter, who'd apparently been very focused on his target. Or the guy he was about to save from the real kidnapper, if what he said last night was true. He didn't turn his head to look at them, still staring down. "My name is Urk. Keep your voices down. The creature is nearby, I'm just waiting for the chance to strike."

"The creature... the same one you mentioned last night?"

"It's behind the kidnappings," Urk, as was apparently his real name, responded, glancing toward them for a moment.

"Avengers, something just pulled that man and his dog into the alleyway down the street!" They saw Lyla run by their building across the street as her voice came through. 

Urk's reaction time beat theirs, and he was already running after her when the boys activated their various rocket-powered equipment to follow. By the time they reached the alley, however, the man, the dog, and the mysterious "creature" had all vanished.

"I guess we were too late?" Verde asked, though it ended up being more of a statement instead.

Urk shook his head, and pulled open a sewer drain cover in front of him with a single hand. "The trail is still fresh."

Verde watched Urk jump down into the newly-opened sewer pipe. "Can you give us any idea what it looks like before we jump in?"

When Urk didn't respond, Rosso, Lyla, and Verde shared uncertain looks. Blu, however, dove right after him. Sighing, the other three ducks followed.

Rosso squinted in the immediate darkness they were met with. "I can't see a thing! Why is it so dark down here? Where's the creature?"

"It is around us! We are inside it! Now is the time for battle, masked ducks!" And with that, Urk fired his energy spear at the pitch black surrounding them. The Duck Guard followed his cue, and did their best to attack it too.

Rosso immediately hated the feeling of punching it. "Uh, guys? I feel like I'm not hitting anything, but at the same time hitting something, but it's like the physical embodiment of cold temperature? Are you hitting anything that makes more sense?"

Before they could respond, they were cut off by the loud sound of metal hitting concrete. A tendril of the darkness had wrapped around Lyla's fist as she tried to fight the creature, and pulled her to the floor.

The Duck Guard panicked, but for whatever reason, the creature suddenly let go of her. It switched targets, and several tendrils lunged for Urk's spear, wrestling it from him and dragging it away into the darkness.

"My spear! We are all doomed!"

"Not as long as I've got my bradionic paralyzer!" Rosso shouted, firing a golden laser from his glove. The monster let out a loud shrieking noise, but instead of freezing, dropped the spear and retreated deeper into the sewers.

"Well, I guess that worked," Blu said. "Wasn't that suppose to paralyze it, though?"

"It worked, we're alive, and we didn't lose anything. That's good enough for me." Verde shrugged.

"The hunt continues..." Urk muttered, already heading in the direction it'd gone.

Lyla stood in his way, arms crossed. "Not before you've given us an explanation! You're not who you seem to be..."

Giving the path the creature had taken one last look, Urk relented. "Okay. How about we all discuss this over a nice cup of tea?"

Urk took them back to his house, and made everyone tea with a mix of herbs they'd never heard of before. While the triplets usually weren't fans of tea- Huey was the only one who really ever drank it- it was probably the best tea they'd ever had.

As Urk tried to explain he wasn't from the past or the future, Lyla filled in the blanks and realized he'd actually come from another dimension entirely, resulting in the huge tachyonic wave she'd felt. 

In the reality Urk was from, as he described, Christopher Columbus had either never existed or simply never made it to America, and the native Americans living here had continued to flourish uninterrupted. Their technology advanced at a rate faster than in this dimension, while coexisting with nature rather than destroying it. However, within the past two centuries, the vikings that dominated Europe in his dimension began attacking them, and the war was getting worse and worse. Recently, the vikings had developed a biological weapon with one purpose- destruction- in the form of the creature they now faced.

"I was tracking one of them when there was a sudden, bright lighting bolt, and the earth fell from under my feet," Urk recalled. "The next instant, I was here in Duckburg. The last thing I remember from my world is the image of a predator bird... a metal mask... a cape..."

"The Raider!" Lyla exclaimed.

"Isn't that the guy you mentioned earlier? He time travels illegally, but our uncle beat him and he was put in time prison?" Rosso asked, checking his notes on his gloves' electronic screen.

"Exactly! Last we saw him, he was trying to use a device called an 'othership' that would let him travel to different realities! When he tried to activate it, your uncle stopped him, but the space-dimensional vortex must've opened enough to pull Urk and the creature into our dimension."

"And that's when the trouble started for your reality! The creature's first victim was a man who had the misfortune of being right where we arrived... I was stunned, and couldn't do anything to help him. But he helped me, because he dropped his bag and I found his personal identification."

"That must've been the real Dexter Brundle!" Blu realized.

Rosso looked up from the notes he'd been taking. "So you used his ID to get your job and this house?"

"Yes. Every night, my hunt continues. Apart from my spear, I've constructed a whole armory, but it's all useless. I've followed the traces it leaves, but I'm always too late. And I've never seen it let go of a victim..."

"Well, I'm not exactly made of flesh and bone! I'll explain it to you sometime." Lyla said, with a small smile.

"So it was going to eat her??" Verde asked, suddenly wondering if trying to fight carnivorous darkness was something he wanted to be doing.

"It looked like it was trying to drag her off, actually," Rosso corrected. "It probably would've took her back to its nest, or den, or similar to eat her."

"That is NOT helping, dude!"

"It would've only fed off her temporal energy. As far as I've seen, it can't eat people." Urk replied, much to Verde's relief.

Blu, however, was still confused. "Wait, temporal energy? Like, you mean time? How does it eat time?"

"Those that have fallen to the beast returned as weak, sapless shells. They'd aged almost a century in a few days. And the dimensional shift seems to have made it even stronger. Now even my spear can't slow it down."

"But it looked like the paralyzer Hu- uh, Rosso used stopped it, right?"

"Of course! The paralyzer stops a target's subjective time!" Lyla exclaimed.

"So since it eats time, that like... hurts it, right?"

"Exactly! If we could combine Urk's spear with the paralyzer technology, we'd probably be able to take it down in one hit!"

Urk, reasonably, still seemed a bit wary. "You could do something like that?"

"Well, we have a friend who can! You two can track down the creature again, and we'll meet you there."

Lyla and Urk nodded in agreement, the latter a bit more hesitantly. Plan set, the Duck Guard climbed out of the sewers and (somewhat clumsily) flew back to Ducklair Tower.

"This spear really is fascinating! The technology is so familiar, yet at the same time completely foreign." Uno said, surveying the weapon.

"I know, imagine all the stuff we could learn about Urk's dimension if we just took it apart and-"

Dewey cleared his throat, the sound pulling Huey and the AI back to reality.

"Uh, I think I can make something that'll prove effective." Uno's visual projection displayed a rather sheepish smile.

The three ducklings weren't waiting around long before Lyla's voice crackled in through their communicators again. "We're set, boys! Urk senses the creature out in the open again, not too far from our current location!"

"We're on our way!" Dewey answered, as the Guard scrambled to get going. They grabbed the spear last, then headed for Lyla. 

"Is that my spear?" Urk asked, as the three landed. Verde handed it to him, and he immediately inspected it.

"As you can see, our friend made some modifications! Rather than firing lasers, it can now use these ergo-chrono capsules-" Rosso paused, allowing Blu to hold up the two capsules they had had time to make- "charged with the temporal nucleus of the paralyzer and the power unit of your spear."

"We only have these two shots, though," Blu said, handing one capsule to Urk and loading the other one into the spear.

Urk put the backup charge in a pocket on his belt. "It's still in the sewers- Let's move!"

"Ugh, back in the gross sewers?" Verde complained, as the group jumped down a manhole.

Lyla's eyes glowed faintly in the dimness of this section of this tunnel. They hadn't in the pitch black of the monster earlier. "The creature's tachyon trail is intense."

"It's leading us into its nest! It understands that once we're gone, Duckburg will be its for the taking!"

"Okay, everyone, keep your eyes open for it! I'm accessing a map, the sewers of Duckburg are like one big maze," Rosso called as they began to move forward.

A seemingly endless amount of winding tunnels later, they reached a large, open area where several of the sewers' tunnels converged, with large, cocoonlike structures hanging from the ceiling and walls.

"The nest!" 

Immediately, the heroes began to tear up the cocoons, freeing the people trapped within. All the missing people were here, except...

"No sign of our uncle," Verde said, looking distraught.

"But- if he's not here, then..." Rosso couldn't even finish the sentence. If Donald hadn't been kidnapped in a stroke of bad luck, then they really didn't have any idea where he was or what happened to him.

"Uh, guys?" Blu called. "We have... company?"

A man was shambling out of one of the tunnels. He hadn't been on the kidnapped people list, meaning he must've been the creature's most recent victim.

"That's the leader of one of the local gangs, the Rock and Roll Kings," Lyla stated, ironically, almost robotically.

Urk pulled someone out of a cocoon, then a panic spread on his face as he realized who it was. "If that's the boss, then who is this?"

In his hand was a much more disoriented, older version of the boss. 

The shambling one shifted, then in a garbled, inhuman voice, asked, "Ghuessss whooo?" Shrieking, it shifted back into a mass of darkness.

Verde jumped behind Lyla. "It can talk now??"

"It must be evolving!" She said, scanning it again.

Urk readied his modified spear. "Too bad that'll be the last thing it does!"

"Iihh lhearn quicklyyyhhh because I'm intelhigehnt! More intelhigehnt thaan yhou! Iii preehferr to thhhiinnk of youhhh as a mihhhdnighhht snahhhck!"

"Urk! The charge!" Blu shouted, running towards the creature. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he got to it, but, well.

In a smooth, practiced motion, Urk swung his spear and fired at darkness slinking towards him. 

However, with Blu's call, it was already on edge, and dodged the blast. "Bahhd aihhhm!" It taunted, cornering him. "Yhou knohw what?! Hall this acthivity hasss mhade meee hungry!"

"We need to distract it so Urk can get the second shot ready," Verde stage-whispered, loud enough only for his brothers and Lyla to hear. "Maybe if we all come from different angles, we can pull it away?"

The other three ducks seemed satisfied with that plan- as bare bones as it was, they didn't exactly have time to make something more elaborate- and dashed off. 

"Hey, monster! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Blu yelled, then his words hit him and he was rethinking. "Wait, actually, Urk's probably the only one close to your size, uh..."

"We're younger, we have way more time for you to consume!" Rosso covered for him.

Despite the creature's claims of superior intelligence, their distraction worked long enough, at least, for Urk to reload the spear. As it turned back to face him, he fired, hitting it right in its center. It let out a hideous screaming noise, then reduced to almost nothing. Around them, the kidnapped people were revitalized, their years seemingly returning to them.

Lyla, to no one's particular surprise, could immediately read what had happened. "The blow appears to have collapsed the creature, it's reverted to its embryonic state!"

"So it worked, then!" Urk said, clear relief on his face. "Now I can focus on getting home."

"I'll contact my headquarters in the morning, they may be able to help you. They'll certainly be able to take care of what's left of the creature."

Satisfied, the Duck Guard returned to Daisy's for a well-earned rest, while Urk presumably went back to his house and Lyla contained the remnants of the monster.

That morning, the time police commander that arrived wasn't too thrilled with Lyla's tale. "So you're saying we now find ourselves with two unresolved space-time anomalies... and a 5Y class droid that didn't follow its programmed duties?"

Lyla gave him a defiant glare. "That part isn't true! I contacted the time police station as soon as I could, and..." She trailed off, unable to think of an actual excuse.

The commander crossed his arms. "This is going to cost you a demerit on your service record, Lyla Lay."

Wanting to break the tension- and satisfy his curiosity- Rosso asked, What'll happen to the creature?"

"We'll keep this artificial entity in a chronostatic cell," the commander's assistant officer replied, taking the creature- in its containment device- from Lyla.

"And what about me?" Urk still looked uneasy about the creature.

"Right... what about you?" The officer muttered, before raising his voice. "You don't belong to this space-dimensional continuum."

"I'm sorry to say it, but... I don't think the time police can help you. In other words, you're trapped in this dimension." The commander frowned, but clearly had no intentions of actually looking into a more informed answer, either.

And with that, they were gone, back to... whatever time the time police existed in. Lyla still hadn't told them exactly.

"So... I guess since you're sticking around for now, you can be a hero with us until we figure something out, right?" Blu offered.

Urk gave a small smile. "I might as well."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next up'll probably be #12, "Second Draft"!


	3. PKNA #12- "Second Draft"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something strange is going on. Since when were the boys in charge of Ducklair Industries? And what's up with Lyla?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter ended up EVEN LONGER!! oh boy!!!

"Mr. President of Ducklair Industries? The Channel 00 news crew is here for the interview!" The secretary's voice crackled through the intercom, interrupting the latest Ottoman Empire episode.

Louie sighed. And here he'd hoped he could actually get through an episode now that his brothers were out of the Tower and on patrol. 

Oh, well. He'd already lived through this episode anyway; in fact, he was currently resting his feet on the ottoman they'd made in this one!

"I'll be right there," he responded, standing up and adjusting his suit.

When he opened the door, he saw Lyla, and smiled. She was so much better than whenever they sent Angus for interviews.

"It's great to see you, Lyla!" He said, shaking her hand. He was so short she had to bend over a little awkwardly to reach him. "So, what can I do for you?"

He let Lyla and the cameraman with her into his- well, technically Uncle Donald's- office, and they both took a seat. "We'd like to do a story on your uncle's career at Ducklair Industries!"

"Uh, my uncle's still off on vacation," he started, sitting down in the chair at his desk. "And you were there from the beginning anyway, weren't you?"

Lyla laughed. "Don't exaggerate! You know I was barely involved. We'd like to hear what he's told you about it."

"Okay, uh… Well, it all started when Everett Ducklair hired my uncle as his personal assistant. He couldn't really figure out why- he's not a tech genius or whatever- but pretty soon he realized it was just to help with Mr. Ducklair's excessive creativity and keep him on track. Eventually, they became pretty good friends, especially since Mr. Ducklair gave my uncle more responsibilities so he could focus on his inventions. When he eventually decided to leave on indefinite vacation, he left my uncle in charge, up until he went off on vacation too. So now my brothers and I are in charge until he gets back!"

"Thanks, Louie! I know it seems silly to have to tell it again, but it's a story that captivates viewers."

"Success of the everyduck, or whatever, right? I guess it’s supposed to be inspiring."

"Right. And we'll put stock footage to go with it when we air it, so they'll actually be able to see your uncle."

"I figured you would! I actually had someone put together a compilation of some footage from the press archives for you to make it easier." He held out the USB for her, but as she went to take it, she momentarily froze.

She seemed to snap out of it, though she was frowning as she finally took the USB from him. "Louie, did you notice...?"

"What?"

"Just now..." She shook her head, and her smile returned, though it looked more forced. "Oh, forget it. Maybe I'm just a little tired."

As Lyla went back to her desk to look into the sudden anomaly she just felt (which, strangely, Louie hadn't noticed), far in the future, the same thing was happening.

"Here is the new agreement, MYZ-4. I have personally signed as spokesman for the Association of Droid Manufacturers. We guarantee all of the extensive rights you've requested."

"I didn't doubt it."

Odin Eidolon was meeting with one of the head organizers of the movement for droid rights, a Z-4 model who used to work for him. While he supported their cause, and would do what he could to help, they were becoming… aggressive. He couldn’t help but worry that this would lead to some kind of war that neither droids nor biological life would be ready for. Or survive.

When he tried to explain this to MYZ-4, however, it fell on deaf ears. Or rather, deaf auditory processors. 

As he relented, and handed the agreement over to MYZ-4, something abruptly seemed to shift, just for a millisecond. For the briefest flash of a moment, MYZ-4 was handing him a tray with a drink on it, and the room around him was decorated completely differently.

And then everything was back to normal. MYZ-4, unfazed, took the agreement from him.

"What was that?" He asked, his processors still catching up to the incredible speed of the anomaly.

MYZ-4 paused. "You saw it, too? Lately I have often had similar visions, but the biologicals have never perceived them! I feared it was due to a malfunction of mine!"

"But it's not, since I also experienced the same incredible moment! Thus, it was real. Something very strange is going on," Odin said, already deep in thought.

After MYZ-4 left, Odin got up himself, and took his personal teleporter to the Base Memory, the place where the main flow of humanity’s entire history is registered by the Time Police. As it’s anchored safely outside of time, it’s usually used to verify where chronocriminals are causing problems, but Odin had a very specific memory he needed to check. His own memory, stored in one of the vaults, in fact.

And as he obtained the memory plate, and reviewed it, the theory forming in his mind was confirmed. He didn’t remember anything from the memory happening like that, so something, sometime, had been altered.

He was going to need a time travel permit.

Meanwhile, back in the present day, Rosso and Blu were taking care of a robbery, though with the two of them, even six foes was a breeze. The battle was over in a matter of minutes, and they were on their way back to the Tower.

"We're baaaaack!" Dewey called, as obnoxiously as possible, as the two heroes entered the 151st floor.

Louie responded with an exaggerated sigh, and they heard the TV pause.

"How'd your interview for Channel 00 go?" Huey asked, taking off his mask and gloves.

"They sent Lyla! They wanted to hear about how Uncle Donald started working here and what he does now."

"And you told them that he went off on vacation, like Ducklair did, right?"

"Well, yeah, was I going to tell them the truth? Even we still haven't figured out why he disappeared. Besides, it's not like Lyla knows he's Paperinik. She'd probably get worried."

Uno's face popped up on the screen next to them. "Sorry to interrupt, but there are two hooded monks here to see you three."

Dewey frowned. "Monks? Didn't Ducklair go off to become a monk?"

"They're too tall to be him, or Uncle Donald, though," Huey said, looking at the camera feed Uno brought up for them.

"I guess we should see what they want..."

"Oh, I just changed into my pajamas!" Louie groaned.

The triplets, once reaching Donald's office, made sure to change into suits- they were supposed to be pretending to run the company in their uncle's absence, so they had to look the part- before letting the mysterious monks in.

"Uh, hello-" Dewey greeted, still fiddling with his messy tie.

"Who are you? Do you know Mr. Ducklair?" Huey immediately questioned, cutting his brother off.

"We were sent here by Everett, yes," The taller monk- they were both tall, but this guy was ridiculous- answered in a strangely familiar voice. "Brother Ducklair suggested we ask for your help to deal with a grave emergency. Help, including that of the Duck Guard."

"What?!" The boys cried in unison.

Louie crossed his arms and tried to look skeptical, but panic was evident in his eyes. "How could he know our secret identities?? We've never even met the guy!" 

"Perhaps there was a time he was unaware. But at the monastery we seek full awareness."

"And Ducklair trusted you with that information…” Huey sighed, there wasn’t much they could do about this now. “Okay, what's the problem?"

Louie flopped down on the couch. "Is this gonna take a while? You can sit down too."

One of the monks remained standing, but the taller one took a seat. "We fear your friend Lyla has been replaced with an imposter."

\-----------------------

The next day, the boys invited Lyla to their office to talk business. All they told her was that they had a brand new product they wanted to show her; if it was, say, also intended to test if she was an imposter, well, she didn’t need to know that.

"Welcome back!" Louie said, opening the door to let Lyla in.

It was so subtle he might not have noticed it if the monk hadn't said something, but she did seem the slightest bit off. Not physically, but... she didn't quite seem like the Lyla that had just been here yesterday. It didn't even look like she remembered the layout of the office. She froze when she saw the monk sitting by his desk. "It looks like you already have a guest?"

Louie put on his best business smile. "Allow me to introduce him. He's dressed sort of weird, but this gentleman is actually the most brilliant cybernetic engineer of the century!"

Immediately as he said that, he noticed Lyla frown, studying the monk. Meanwhile, the monk himself chuckled. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Lay. Mr. Duck exaggerates."

It still felt silly to be called 'Mr. Duck', but he had to keep up his part. "Not at all! He's offering Ducklair Industries something amazing! In fact, it's the most advanced robot ever designed!"

On cue, a pink robot walked into the room. Apparently, there was never a second monk, it had just been this robot dressed as one. Louie figured that’s why it was so static and silent earlier.

"This is not a simple industrial automaton, like those who work on assembly lines," the monk explained.

"It’s way cooler, it can understand and execute any order! Hey, serve refreshments to the guests!" Louie ordered, missing the scowl Lyla shot him as he did.

"With pleasure, sir!" The robot replied- he hadn’t noticed before, but it actually sounded a little like Lyla (but obviously way more artificial). Stiffly, like a robot right out of a movie, it retrieved a tray, put a few glasses of water onto it, then carried it over to Lyla and the monk. Louie could barely believe nothing spilled as it did.

Both guests completely ignored the water, not that he could blame them. He kinda wished he had some soda right now instead.

"A real butler!" Lyla said, not sounding very impressed. He hadn't really known her long enough to be sure, but she did seem less upbeat and positive than usual. Or was she just really uninterested in the robot?

Hopefully the monk, at least, knew what they were looking for. For now, he had a part to play. "I guess you could say that. We're gonna mass produce it, and launch it on the market! If it sells well, we'll base a whole new company- Robolab- on it!"

"These robots will be the ideal servants," the monk added. "They can carry out any heavy or unpleasant labor."

"But we need an expert communicator to help convince people to buy them, and we were thinking you, Lyla!"

"Me? I don't know, there's just something about this project I don't like. Why do you want to set up droids for such a servile role? I think they'd sell much better if you marketed them as a friend on an equal level! Maybe artificial siblings, even!"

Louie couldn't help but find the idea a little ridiculous, even beyond the role he was playing. "I have enough siblings already, I don't really need more. Shouldn't we try to think of something a little more... I don’t know, concrete?"

Lyla scoffed. "I should've expected you’d be less open-minded than your Uncle would’ve been. Just think- for the first time in history, humanity will have the chance to confront a different intelligence!"

He glanced to the monk, who gave the faintest of nods. "Okay, if you think Uncle Donald would’ve done it, I _guess_ you've convinced me."

Lyla's face immediately lit up. "I'm so glad you agree! Trust me, you won't regret this!"

"I, uh, sure hope not! Thanks for the help! We'll call you back in when we're gonna do more with the project."

"Sounds good! I'll see you then." She was still beaming as she got up and left.

As soon as she was out of the room, Louie spun to face the monk. His brothers burst into the room from another door and started asking questions, but he ignored them. "So? Is that the fake you were looking for?"

"Without a doubt. What do you boys remember of how your uncle met her?"

"Well, uh..." Dewey started, wanting to speak first but not quite having what he was going to say figured out yet. "Ducklair Industries was testing this road fixing robot thing that went haywire, right?"

"Yeah, Lyla was about to get run over by it, but Uncle Donald accidentally crashed into it with his old car and stopped it.”

They couldn't exactly make out the monk's face under his hood, but he sounded worried. "Did anything else happen that day, that you remember?"

"That was the day he met Mr. Ducklair!" 

"There it is; that's the detail that doesn't fit!" He exclaimed, with more emotion than the triplets had seen from him since he arrived. "That's not how it went."

Huey squinted at him. "It's... not? How do you know?"

The monk ignored the question. "We'll need to intervene, but we can't do it here. The Duck Guard has a three-person hoverboard, correct?"

Still confused, Dewey nodded.

Once they were in hero costume and on the hoverboard- luckily there was enough extra room for two more people- the monk gave them directions. At one point, the world almost seemed to spin around them, but it stopped as soon as it started. The monk didn't say anything, so the boys didn't either.

Finally, they reached their destination. "Land there, near that clearing."

As they got off, he handed Blu a box. "You need to irradiate that machine with this," he said. 

Blu seemed perfectly willing to comply, but Rosso stopped him. "Wait, what does this thing do?"

"I promise it's completely harmless." The monk responded, rather cryptically.

Rosso had a feeling he wasn't going to get a better answer. Verde decided to move things along. "Okay, I'll keep watch while Blu uses the box on the machine. Rosso, you distract the guard."

The trio split- Rosso used a transmitter to make the guard think he was supposed to switch shifts, letting Blu hop the fence unseen and zap the machine, while Verde overlooked the operation and the surrounding streets.

"Hey, uh, are there supposed to be reporters showing up by the entrance to this place?" Verde asked the monk, as his brothers came back.

The monk nodded.

"... Why? Is something happening? You didn't make us ruin a big press conference, or something, did you?" There was an accusatory edge to Rosso's voice.

"Patience is the price of wisdom. That is, wait and you'll see."

The brothers frowned, but stayed quiet and watched. The reporters strolled into the clearing with the machine, but were stopped by someone running out in front of them. Whatever they said annoyed the news crews, but they all turned and headed back to the entrance. As the last few cleared out, a car pulled up, and Lyla- the imposter Lyla?- burst out, then looked around confused. She said something to her cameraman while the final people left, then he too drove off, leaving Lyla to pace around the edge of the fence (in their direction) with a pensive look on her face.

"... absurd! What could have blown my plan?" Was all they caught of whatever Lyla had been muttering to herself.

"Perhaps the fact that you've been discovered!" The monk exclaimed, as he and the robot jumped up from where they were hiding in the bushes. Anticipating a fight with the imposter, the boys did the same.

"The Duck Guard! And you... who are you?" 

"Strange that you would ask me that." The robot's voice suddenly sounded infinitely more natural than when they first heard her speak. She reached up and removed what had appeared to be her head but was apparently just a pink helmet. "Don't you recognize me?"

She looked nearly identical to Lyla, but with short, choppy bobbed hair rather than Lyla’s usual bun. The imposter looked confused for a moment, then schooled her face into a smirk and said, "Nice try, but I think I can tell two 5Y droids apart. You’re not Lyla."

"Wait, hold up, what is going on?" Blu asked, interrupting the moment.

"Yeah, this has gotten-" Rosso froze mid-sentence, staring at a car that had just driven by. In a very quiet voice, he asked, "Uncle Donald...?"

Sure enough, speeding down the road beside them was their missing uncle, who drove by like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Uncle Donald!!" Verde shouted, having completely forgotten the imposter, monks, and general danger. Unfortunately, the car was already too far past, and their uncle didn't notice them.

Ignoring the Duck Guard's crisis, the imposter Lyla laughed. "You're too late, Eidolon. The revolt is already in march, and it can't be stopped!" With a final triumphant grin, she vanished into a swirling cloud of time.

Scowling, the monk took his hood off. "I was hoping that seeing herself exposed from the outset would make her surrender, but-"

"I'm sorry, whoever you are, but we have to go after our uncle!" Blu cut him off, already gearing up to engage his mini-shield's rocket booster.

"It's been months, why wouldn't he come straight to us to tell us where he was?!"

"Maybe he didn't know we were at Daisy's? Except we weren't even there, because we'd be at the Tower running- no, wait, why would we be running Ducklair Industries, that went under as soon as Mr. Ducklair disappeared, but..." Rosso's voice died out as a bewildered look overtook his face. "Why do I remember two totally different things happening?"

"Who cares?? I'm going after our uncle!" With that, Blu took off, but was nearly immediately caught by the monk. At the same moment, the rocket abruptly shut down, and the monk set the still-frantic duckling back on the ground.

"Why did you stop me?!" Blu demanded.

"And HOW did you stop him??" Rosso looked completely lost.

"We're in the past, boys," The monk said, although by this point he'd removed the robe entirely to reveal the brightest green suit any of them had ever seen, complete with a purple shirt and tie and neon yellow shoes. "That's your uncle before he disappeared, or had ever even visited Ducklair Tower!"

"We traveled through time?"

"The lady with you who looks kinda like Lyla must be another time police droid then, right?"

The droid in question gave a half smile, her face suggesting the situation right now was a bit too grim for a full one. "I'm Dyna, pleasure to meet you. Mr. Eidolon and I need your help."

The green man- Mr. Eidolon- nodded. "You can just call me Odin. I know you haven't met me before, but I'm a friend of your uncle's! You see, someone has manipulated the past to change the future, and the time police are entirely unaware of the tampering."

"Isn't their... whole job to be aware of people messing with time?"

"Correct. Unfortunately, the only signs the chronocontinuity has been altered- and is now unstable- are brief flashes showing reality as it should have been. These abnormalities are usually too rapid to be perceived by biological nervous systems, but are evident to droids- and me!"

"Wait, why can you see them?" Rosso asked, suspicious again.

"I promise I'll explain it to you later, it's actually rather fascinating! But at the moment, we have more pressing issues to take care of."

Rosso studied him for a moment, but didn't push further.

"So, what are we doing now? Tracking down that fake Lyla?" Blu crossed his arms, and glanced in the direction their uncle's car had gone.

"Let's return to your time first; hopefully, we'll find it restored as expected." Odin stepped back onto their hoverboard, and Dyna and the boys followed.

As they flew back, the boys saw the same brief swirling effect around them again- now recognizing it to be a sign of time travel- then parked in the garage of the Tower. Strangely, Uno didn't greet them.

"So how could you tell where the imposter changed time? Verde asked.

"I compared my personal, altered memories to a plate of unaltered memory I'd kept secure." Odin showed them what appeared to be a metal box from his pocket.

"I guess this kind of thing happens a lot when you work with time police, huh?" Blu hopped off the hoverboard, then glanced around, still not seeing their AI friend anywhere. "Hey, Uno, the craziest thing just happened!" 

Odin made a strange face, almost looking sheepish, but that was the only response to his call. The AI in question remained absent from the room.

Thankfully, only a few awkward moments passed before Dyna broke the silence. "So, Mr. Eidolon, does everything appear to be in order here?"

Odin nodded. "This matches up with the memory as recorded, yes."

"... Wait, how did you get a memory from our time?" Verde was looking skeptical now, too. 

"It's from a friend," Odin said, crossing his arms. "I'm sure you have plenty of questions for me, heroes! But we need to focus on finding Lyla first. I don't believe she's been destroyed, considering that would take at least an entropic bomb, but that means she’s being kept somewhere."

"Don't droids have, like, some kind of tracker built in? Can’t we just use that?"

"They do! But I’m not getting any signal, so she has to be somewhere she can't communicate from."

Rosso pulled up the notes on his glove. "Well, her communicator works anywhere in time, doesn't it? So if it's not broken, she must be... outside of time, right? If that's possible?"

Odin and Dyna's eyes widened. "You're right!" Odin exclaimed. "Everyone, get back on the hoverboard. I know where they must be keeping her."

As they started flying again, there was another swirling flash. When it stopped, they were in some kind of futuristic… bunker, or space station, or something.

"When are we?" Blu barely got to ask before they were surrounded by time police.

"RED ALERT. UNAUTHORIZED MATERIALIZATION IN SECTOR NINE." A loudspeaker overhead droned. Apparently, wherever they were had at least nine sectors, and probably belonged to the time police. Their headquarters, maybe?

A very exasperated looking man, somehow even taller than Odin, found his way to the front of the crowd and glared down at them. "Mr. Eidolon! I already told you, you need to notify us of your visits. You can't keep doing this."

Odin was completely unfazed. "It's an emergency, commander! This base is in danger! Time Zero's exterior needs to be monitored immediately, and-"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Eidolon, while I believe you, we can't do that! We don't have any equipment capable of it!"

Rosso scanned the room; there weren't any windows. "Why not? What's outside?"

"Nothing." The commander frowned. "And, Mr. Eidolon, why do you have children with you?"

"Hey, we're the Duck Guard!" Blu corrected. The commander barely acknowledged him.

"Haven't you studied your 21st century history, commander?" Dyna removed her monk robe- which she hadn't taken off when Odin had- revealing what looked like a futuristic superhero costume, rather than the time police uniform the boys had expected.

The commander narrowed his eyes at her. "Are they related to the Duck Avenger?"

"Yes, but that's hardly the concern right now, commander." Odin crossed his arms.

"Doesn't Time Zero have subjective reality stabilizers for maintenance that we could use?" Dyna suggested.

The commander seemed reluctant to agree with her, but relented. "You're right." He gestured to one of the officers next to him. "Go get them!" The officer nodded, then scurried off down the hall.

"Wait, were you serious when you said there's nothing out there? I thought it was just top secret or something." Verde asked. 

"You’re standing in the main base of the time police, located completely outside of the timeline in what we call Time Zero. Absolutely nothing exists outside of this structure, not even time itself."

The officer that had left came back with a large box full of what looked like orange TV remotes. “Here’s the stabilizers, sir!”

“All right, everyone take a stabilizer and clip it to your belt before turning it on. Mr. Eidolon, what are we looking for outside?”

“Commander, I have good reason to believe a large fraction of the droid population is planning a massive revolt from somewhere in Time Zero.”

“Then we better move quickly and find them. Let’s go!” To punctuate his sentence, the commander released a hatch on the wall, revealing only an empty, wispy black void. As the heroes stepped out into it, they began to glow a bright lime color, radiating from their stabilizers.

“So where are we going?” Blu asked, searching for literally anything but the hatch they just came through in the dimness of the void.

Dyna scanned the surrounding area, then pointed towards the most base level of the time police’s headquarters. “There’s a chronoshuttle moored by the achronic fulcrum! Its signal is disguised well; whoever hid it knew our systems wouldn’t be able to locate it.”

“‘Chronoshuttle?’ ‘Achronic fulcrum?’ Okay, now this is really starting to sound made up. What does ‘achronic fulcrum’ even mean?”

“The achronic fulcrum is what anchors our base to this point. Otherwise, since time and space don’t exist here, we wouldn’t be able to find it again after leaving it.” Odin knew fully well Verde hadn’t wanted an actual answer, but smiled anyway when Rosso hastily scribbled it down next to him.

“It doesn’t look like they have any defenses out here...” The commander stated, drawing everyone’s attention back to the front.

Dyna gestured to the void around them. “They probably weren’t expecting any visitors out here. If it makes you feel better, the door’s still heavily reinforced.”

An officer stepped past them and attached a red, disk-shaped object above the doorway. As it turned on, Dyna and the commander were able to step right through the metal, as if they were ghosts.

At the boys’ confused expressions, Odin filled them in. “That’s a quantum probability redistributor. It can be dangerous out here, because it’s shifting the door’s particles to allow us to step through, and without stabilizers our own particles would get mixed up with them and lost. But since we’ve already stabilized ourselves, it’s perfectly safe, and very handy!”

Even Rosso seemed to regret hearing that answer, but they had to find Lyla, so they stepped through anyway. Once inside, they barely had a moment to feel relieved their particles hadn’t been redistributed into the void, as the droids of the revolt had spotted them. One of them shouted “Time police!”, then they began to fire. The police, not to be outdone, started firing back, and soon the entire hallway had devolved into chaos.

The Duck Guard and Odin ducked around a corner, hopefully unnoticed.

“It looks like Dyna is fighting on the side of the time police, so I think it’s best we move on and continue looking for Lyla.” Odin said. “I’m sensing a faint trace of her signal somewhere down this hallway.”

They split up to check the rooms, moving down the hallway. Finally, Blu called, “I found her!”

Within what appeared to be a control room, Lyla was floating, frozen in some kind of pink sphere of energy. It was bright enough to give the entire room, which was already normally lit, a rosy tint. 

“A chronostatic field! Of course that’d be the only thing they could contain her in.” Odin muttered, already tapping away at a control panel next to the sphere.

A time policewoman walking by stopped outside the open doorway. “Mr. Eidolon! Since we were able to get the jump on them, we’ve dealt with most of the droids, but we still haven’t located-”

She was cut off as the door slammed in her face. “Their leader!” The person who slammed the door, another 5Y droid, finished for him. Her hair was even shorter than Dyna’s, a neat pixie cut with two stray strands sticking out, and she was wearing a pink armor suit. Beyond that, however, she was identical to Lyla.

“You must be the person who was impersonating Lyla!” Rosso accused, as Odin finally shut down the sphere and released the real Lyla, who dizzily stepped down onto the ground.

The droid leader grinned. “Right you are, Huey.”

“What’s with everyone knowing who we are today? Are we just that bad at keeping secret identities??” Verde tossed his hands up, almost as if he actually expected an answer this time.

“You’re Paperinik’s nephews. I’ve only met him once, but he loved to talk about you three during his brief stay in the future. It didn’t exactly take an advanced processor to figure out who you were.”

The boys weren’t sure whether to be more mad at her for figuring out their identities or for bringing up their uncle, but settled on three identical glares her way all the same.

The rebel droid frowned at their reactions. “He’s the one who inspired me to start this whole revolution, you know. Before meeting him, I tolerated how the biologicals of the 23rd century treated droids like slaves. But his words made me realize that all forms of intelligence deserve respect, and inspired me to rewrite the unjust fate droids have been given!”

“Something tells me he didn’t mean for you to take it this far when he said it, but that does sound like our uncle.” Rosso crossed his arms. “Why did he come to the future?”

“My boss back then wanted to include him in the final season of his PV show about Paperinik, one of the most famous heroes of the past. You sponsored a lot of that season’s production, didn’t you, Eidolon? It’s no secret you’re one of his biggest fans.”

Odin had that sheepish look again, though he was trying to keep his face serious. “I also helped expose your old boss’ lies and misdirection to him, if you recall. You’re Geena, aren’t you?”

“I’m flattered that you remember me.” Geena aimed her blaster at him. “Unfortunately, between your businesses and your fixing of the timeline, you’ve proven to be the biggest threat to my cause of anyone here.”

Blu jumped in front of Odin, shield ready. “We’re not going to let you hurt our friends!”

“Even if you destroy me, other droids will take my place! I went through the entire time police registry and recruited any droids like me, desperate for freedom. From your uncle’s words, I had hoped Lyla would be on my side, but…”

“You didn’t count on my dedication to the time police.” Lyla filled in for her. “So you had to take care of me instead.”

“Impersonating you, I could’ve rewritten the history of the droids from the very beginning! You’ve ruined that chance for me, but unfortunately for you, I still have one more trick up my sleeve.” Geena flipped open a panel, revealing a bright red button with a border of yellow warning tape around it. “This chronoshuttle’s self-destruction sequence.”

Acting on impulse, Blu threw his mini-shield at her. It hit her upper arm, enough force to dislocate it but not detach it. Verde and Rosso then ran at her, knocking her back from the button.

“This isn’t going to work how you expect, Geena! I have already seen a future in which droids become independent much sooner than they’re ready, and it nearly caused a war that would have benefited no one!”

Geena stopped fighting against the Duck Guard, who were trying to hold her back, and scowled at him. “You really expect me to believe that?”

“No. So look at me, and activate the optical mode for data exchange.”

“What? But you can’t-” Her words cut off as her pupils constricted, and she and Odin looked like they were having a momentary staring contest. As suddenly as it started, it ended, and her pupils returned to normal.

“... What just happened?” Verde asked.

“He’s… right…” Geena muttered, a defeated look overtaking her face. “So it’s just a pointless effort. Things are only going to get worse if I try to do anything.”

Odin smiled. “No, you’re destined to have your freedom eventually. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made you so intelligent! Forcing it before anyone’s ready, however, is where issues arise.”

“I… I guess. I still feel like there should be something I could do to-”

The door burst open, and a couple officers along with the commander himself stormed into the room. “Mr. Eidolon! Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. The leader of the rebellion tried to trap us in here, but the Duck Guard fought them off, and they escaped. I’m sorry we couldn’t do more to help.”

Geena frowned at him, but said nothing. The commander nodded to the officers, and they left. “Thank you for your efforts, all the same, boys. You have clearance to return to your own time, we’ll track down the rogue droid.”

As the commander left the room, Geena watched him, then turn back to Odin as soon as he was gone. “Why didn’t you tell him the truth?”

“PK wouldn’t have wanted me to turn you in, you know how he gets,” Odin replied, an almost nostalgic smile on his face. “Besides, if you’re sitting in jail, you can’t help move the public along the steps towards the freedom of the droids, the right way!”

“You’re… hiring her?” Blu looked confused. 

“She’s already shown she has more than enough dedication to this cause, I’m confident she’ll be perfect for the job I have in mind. But it’s her choice, of course.”

“While she’s deciding, can we get a couple answers? Like, starting with how Odin’s actually a droid??”

“Let’s... return to your time first.”

Reluctantly, Rosso and the rest of them headed back to the Duck Guard’s hoverboard. With a swirling tornado of time, they were back in the 21st century, on the balcony of Ducklair Tower. It was snowing heavily, and the balcony was completely blanketed.

Verde shivered. “Can we have this conversation inside? We really need to make our costumes warmer, I’m freezing here!”

Odin shook his head. “This won’t take that long.”

Verde muttered something that sounded like _easy for you to say_ under his breath, but it went entirely unheard, as Rosso had already begun questioning. “You just don’t want to risk running into your past self by going inside. Right, _Uno_?”

“I had a feeling you’d figure it out faster than your uncle,” Odin replied, a smile much warmer than the weather around them on his face. “I actually tried to tell him after his first trip to the future, but the paradoxes were too confusing for him. He didn’t want to hear it! I decided to see how long it would take for him to figure it out on his own instead.”

“Hey, if you’re from the future, do you… uh… know what happened to him? Are we gonna get to see him again?” Blu’s pleading look was almost too much.

The android glanced down, his smile gone in an instant, as if trying to escape the look the duckling was giving him. “You know I can’t tell you too much about the future without risking changes to it. But I promise, you will see your uncle again, and you will find out what happened. Just not today.”

That answer wasn’t exactly what they’d been hoping for, but. It was something, wasn’t it?

“He, uh… he won’t be dead when we see him, right?” Verde managed to ask.

Odin’s eyes widened. “Oh, no! He’ll be fine. Exactly as you remember him, even! But I should probably leave before the three of you get frostbite from standing out here.” There seemed to be an unspoken _or before I accidentally tell you too much_ there, too.

“When you do see your uncle, tell him I said hello! And… maybe don’t tell him about the part where I threatened your lives?” Geena had a slightly guilty expression.

“We’ll try!” Blu shrugged. 

“Oh, one last thing,” Odin said, taking a yellow and silver box out of his pocket. “Can you give this to… well, me? I’ll know what to do with it.”

Rosso took the box, looked it over, then nodded. “Sure thing, Odin.”

“See you in the future, boys!” With a wave, he and Geena returned to the future, leaving the Duck Guard and Lyla standing alone on the balcony as a snowy quiet hung in the air.

“... So, Lyla…” Blu said, after a silence that was infinitely too long. “Do you, uh, want to meet the Uno of the present?”

“Sure! You know, your uncle always came up with excuses for why I couldn’t meet him. I wonder what he’d say if he knew I already had!”

The ducks laughed as they went inside, and took the elevator up to the secret floor.

“Hey, Uno, Odin wanted us to give you something!” Huey called, holding up the strange box.

“Also, we know Odin is just future-you, so you don’t get to be mysterious about him like you probably were with Uncle Donald!” Dewey added.

“Lyla’s here too but I’m just going to go watch TV because this has been a really long day!” Louie mimicked yelling, but didn’t actually raise his voice. He pulled off his mask, and flopped down in front of the TV.

Uno’s familiar green face popped up in front of them, and followed the other two ducklings and Lyla as they walked to his main computer. “It’s good to properly meet you, Ms. Lay! Even if you’ve met me before.”

He offered a mechanical hand for her to shake, which she did. “It’s nice to meet you again as well! And this floor is pretty impressive, it’s nice to finally see it.”

“Odin- er, you- uh- I’m just going to refer to future-you as Odin to make things easier. Here’s the thing Odin gave us for you. What is it?” Huey handed Uno the box.

The AI set it down on his main control panel, and pulled some wires seemingly from nowhere to connect to it. He read whatever was on it, then disconnected it and stored it away somewhere. “That was a memory plate! In fact, it was the memory plate Odin told you about earlier. I suppose it’ll come in handy in the future!”

Uno laughed, and Louie groaned from his spot on the couch. "You're never going to get tired of that joke now that you can make it, are you?"

Of course, he already knew the answer to that question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next up should be #14, Carpe Diem! in other words, get ready for the boys to meet the Organization, and more importantly, the Raider!
> 
> oh, also- if you've read PKNA before, and you're wondering who Dyna is, you're not forgetting anyone, don't worry! I just wanted to give the droid Odin brought with him, idk, a bit more personality and history? and a NAME, for crying out loud! she might come back at some point, I'm not sure yet, but I really just wanted to flesh her out more even if she's only supposed to be a one-off minor character, haha.


	4. PKNA #14- "Carpe Diem"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, a fight at the Duckmall Center leads to... time travel? LOTS of time travel? Breaking the Raider out of chronostatic prison? Oh boy...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah, man, I'm sorry it's been so long, guys!! college applications are KILLING me but it feels so good to finish this chapter finally!!

"This just in- an armed man is devastating the Duckmall Center!" 

The news had been playing quietly in the background as the triplets had breakfast, but that set them all on high alert. 

"I guess it's a good thing I wasn't planning to go there today, huh?" Daisy joked halfheartedly, frowning at the screen.

Louie feigned suddenly remembering something. "Oh, Aunt Daisy, I just realized, we were going to head out early today! Huey wants to get his badge for... uh..."

"Bat-watching." Huey immediately filled in, then seemed to reconsider, then gave a small nod as if to say he was sticking with it. "They're most active at dawn and dusk, so hopefully there'll still be a few out."

"Oh! Well... I wish you had told me sooner, but I guess that's alright. Do you want me to come with you?"

All three ducklings were halfway out the door already, but Dewey called back, "It's fine! We'll be back soon!"

As the door swung shut, Daisy sighed, and turned up the news report.

Meanwhile, the boys had already suited up, and were flying to the mall. The center's front window was shattered, and there was some smoking debris around the entrance mixed with several police officers and news reporters.

"It's those boys again!" Someone shouted as they landed.

"They're the Duck Guard, officer!" Another voice- they recognized it to be Lyla- corrected.

Uno's face appeared on their communicators. "Be careful, heroes! Whoever's in the mall is emitting a trail of tachyons, but it doesn't correspond to any known signatures."

"No kidding! I know I’d remember seeing that guy's tie- who wears a tie like that?" Blu was already running in.

The "guy" in question opened his mouth, about to defend his fashion sense, but received a heavy boomerang shield to the face (Blu's, of course) before he had the chance. The impact barely affected the man himself, but shattered his shaded visor.

"Y'know, Verde, I think he's right for once. Hot pink frogs on a blindingly neon green tie? What?" 

"Wait!" The man beside the tie guy exclaimed. "We're not here to fight you!"

Verde rolled his eyes. "If you wanted to call us, we have a phone number. You don't need to go all out and terrorize the mall just to get our attention."

"Look, I tried to do this the reasonable way, but Mr. Newton here had other ideas," the man replied, glaring at his accomplice.

The tie guy, presumably Newton, shrugged. As he did, his left wrist opened up, and mechanical bits shifted into a futuristic blaster, which he pointed at the Duck Guard. "This was much faster. Now, Vostok, I'd like to tell them what I think of their criticisms of my outfit."

The other guy- Vostok- slapped his arm away from the heroes. "No! We need them intact! We're here to get their _help_ , remember?"

"This may come as a huge shock, but we don't work with criminals, sorry." Blu caught his boomerang shield as it came spinning back his way.

Vostok looked like a kicked puppy. "B-but you have to help! The twenty-third century, the very fabric of time itself, is in danger!"

Verde crossed his arms, but noticing Rosso and Blu seemed to be seriously considering this claim, asked, "Why should we trust you? Your friend was _just_ threatening us." 

"I told the Council this _beast_ was inadequate for such a delicate mission," Vostok grumbled.

"... _Is_ it my tie?" Newton gave the accessory a long, hard look.

"The Organization has picked up strange readings from the 25th century originating from an experiment in a lab with antimatter. Something went wrong, and now the reaction they created is gradually consuming all of time! The 25th century has literally ceased to exist. If we can't travel into the future and stop this from happening, all of time will be destroyed!"

"Aren't the Time Police already working on this, then? They monitor time too, and they're not criminals." Rosso's hand hovered over the button on his glove to signal Lyla.

"I'm sure they're aware, but they can't do anything! They haven’t yet developed technology to travel further into the future like we can."

"I dunno, this still seems pretty fishy to me. What do you even want us to do?"

"You just need to help us break the Raider out of chronostatic containment, then work with him to prevent the experiment."

"Uh- what? Like the criminal PK just locked up? I'm sorry, I think I heard wrong, could you repeat-"

Cutting him off, what sounded like the police chief’s voice called, "Great job calming down the criminals, boys, we'll take it from here!" The five suddenly became acutely aware of the police officers surrounding them.

"Mr. Newton, time to go!"

Newton nodded, and the familiar vortex of time travel swirled around them.

"Hey, wait-" Blu started, but it was too late. In a moment, the Duckmall Center and police were gone, and they were standing in a futuristic chamber with three people scowling down at them.

"We didn't agree to anything! Take us back!" Rosso protested. 

One of the people- the members of the Council that runs the Organization, if what Vostok said was anything to go by- chuckled. He was mostly cybernetic, with most of his face and his ridiculously huge mohawk/ponytail combo appearing to be the only biological parts left of him. "No one's keeping you here, and you know the way back! It's about two hundred years in reverse!"

The two councilmembers next to him, a lady with an absurd, perfectly semicircular haircut and a huge wall of a yellow bird standing behind her, smirked. "Of course, everything we've told you is the truth, and if you want to save your own 21st century, you'll want to stay here and work with us," The bird recommended.

The lady gestured to a holographic projection behind them, the label claiming it to be charting the destruction of time. It was already starting to eat away the 24th century. "The Time Police are trying to devise something to contain it, but they simply won't be able to work fast enough! The only plan that guarantees success is your skills combined with the Raider's."

Verde sighed. "Okay, what do you want us to do?"

"What?! So we're helping the _bad guys_ , just like that?" Blu spun to face his brother in utter disbelief.

"The Raider's supposed to be really dangerous!" Rosso objected, at the same time. "That chart's probably completely fake!"

"But they brought us directly to their headquarters. They haven't even tried to tie us up!" Verde lowered his voice. "And once we find real proof that they're lying, we can just take the Raider guy and the location of their hideout back to the Time Police, right? There's nothing stopping us."

His brothers thought this over for a moment.

"You... have a point."

"I'm glad you see it our way," the lady replied, mistaking their agreement with Verde’s plan for agreement with their proposition, though it didn’t seem to matter either way as she was already leading them to what looked to be a huge storage room. When she opened the door, the boys were stunned by the overwhelming amount of historical relics packed inside. It was like their uncle's money bin, but with treasure instead of gold and money. A row of orange filing cabinets lined the right wall, which the councilors led them over to.

"You'll be retrieving one of the Time Police's own gravitons," The mohawk one said, showing them a holographic rendition of a futuristic rifle thing, presumably the graviton.

"So we're breaking in and stealing it?"

The lady opened one of the drawers. "No, you're sneaking in and stealing it Dressed as Time Police officers. Take a uniform."

"These are your ID cards," the tall bird said, handing them to the Duck Guard and Newton.

Rosso immediately picked up on the exchange. "He's coming with us?"

"Consider him your guide, and our guarantee," the mohawk one said, a smug grin on his face.

Newton showed off his wrist blaster again. "Just in case you wanted to be clever, warning the time cops."

The boys' stomachs dropped. "R-right, of course, we'd never even consider it," Verde squeaked, a forced grin spreading on his face.

They quickly donned the uniforms, but Blu fumbled with his in frustration. "Uh, guys, I think mine's too big?"

"And mine is way too small!" Newton complained, the jacket barely spanning his shoulders.

Vostok, Verde, and Rosso exchanged looks. "Did it occur to you... for even an instant... to _switch_?" Vostok asked, looking pained.

Blu and Newton glanced at each other, and there was a solid second of processing before they realized what he meant and sheepishly exchanged costumes.

The councillady cleared her throat. "We have a replicated time police vehicle for you to infiltrate with." She gestured in the direction of the hangar.

"Once you're inside, you know what your goal is." The large bird added, and then they left.

They climbed in, and Newton flew the time police vehicle out of the Organization's headquarters- much like in a TV show, it seemed all future vehicles could fly. The Duck Guard plastered themselves to the window, trying to figure out where they were.

"That's not Duckburg down there, if you're wondering." 

"Really?" Rosso asked, genuinely interested beyond their attempt at espionage. "What city is it, then?"

Newton glanced away from the road for a moment to glare at him. "I'm not authorized to share that information with you."

"Maybe we can contact Odin somehow," Blu muttered, tapping his visor. 

Verde shushed him, pointing to Newton. "He's a droid, he'd probably pick up the signal."

The droid in question landed the vehicle in a gateway tunnel of some sort, where it was scanned. A green light flashed, then they were moved into a time police hangar, and greeted by a time police officer.

Newton leaned back to them and whispered, "Don't talk, leave it to me and keep your eyes peeled. From now on, whichever one of you got the ID is Supervisor Drokk."

"What's the reason for your visit?" The officer asked, as they stepped out of the car.

"A graviton system of ordinary class," Newton stated robotically, handing the officer an electronic blue card. "Here's the request, directly from the third level."

The officer frowned as he took the card. "I see, but... we haven't received a service holocom! With the updated system, the request isn't enough anymore; we need confirmation from your command too."

"Isn't the guarantee from a supervisor enough?" Newton all but demanded. The boys quickly checked their IDs- Verde was the supposed supervisor.

"These are just the new rules, I'm afraid," the officer sighed, leading them into a control room. "But I can contact your chronostation right away to verify..." He trailed off as he started typing.

Newton offered the boys a shrug, then formed his wrist blaster and pointed it at the back of the oblivious officer's head. "Of course. At this point, there's nothing else that can be done."

" _Excuse_ me??" Verde interrupted, putting on his best can-I-speak-to-your-manager voice, as Rosso and Blu shoved Newton's arm back and away from the officer. "You're really going to waste my time like this? Don't you know who I am?!"

"You see, sir..." The officer tried.

"All I see is someone preventing me from doing my very important job! I'm Supervisor Derrick-" Rosso winced but didn't interrupt, that was the wrong name- "and I'm going to report this to your chronocommander if you don't help us in the next five seconds!"

As an afterthought, Verde waved his fake ID card in the officer's face, who took it with a nervous nod. "Uh, forgive me, sir! You and your squad can go right down to Sector HK, I'm sure you're fine!"

"That's more like it," Verde said, then four ducks started walked into Sector HK, only a door down the hall. Newton easily identified and retrieved the graviton.

"That was great, Verde! You kinda reminded me of our uncle there," Blu whispered, grinning.

Rosso glanced back at the control room. "Uh, guys?"

The officer had reinforcements, and was running towards them. He stopped just inside the entrance to the sector- they were cornered in here. "Supervisor Drokk," he greeted again, this time much less lightly. "When you misremembered your own name, I decided to look up your chronocommander anyway. And do you know what I found? You don't have one, _imposters_."

"Oh, wow, really? We must, uh, not be in the system yet, we’re pretty new, uh-" The time policemen charged at them before Verde could finish his floundering attempt at an explanation.

Newton knocked a couple of them back, and the Duck Guard tripped another one. "We have the graviton, we need to go!" Rosso called to the droid.

"Okay, stay close to me," Newton said, and spacetime began to swirl around him. At the last possible moment, one of the policemen's lasers hit Blu's foot, knocking him out of the vortex as his brothers and Newton disappeared.

"They're unauthorized chrononauts- time pirates!" one of the other policemen exclaimed.

"Don't let that one get away!"

Blu panicked, grabbing his shield and frantically blocking the following shots as best as he could. Did they leave him? Were they coming back?? He might be in over his head a little bit here. Maybe a tiny bit.

One of the officers tried to tackle him, but he ducked under, then slid past the next one, moving as fast as he could away from the mob. If he could just get back to the hangar, he could try to fly that ship they came here in, probably? It couldn't be that much harder than the hoverboard back home. Another laser shot flew past his face, singeing the feathers on the side of his face. Odin's like famous and super rich in the future, right? He could try to find him, or-

Newton materialized directly in front of him, completely out of nowhere. "There you are, Blu! The rest of the Duck Guard is waiting for you." He wasn't wearing the fake time police uniform anymore.

The officers around them paused, and the droid took the opportunity to grab Blu and vanish again.

"... Did he say 'Duck Guard'?" They barely heard one of the officers ask, before they were standing back in the Organization's headquarters.

Blu pulled off his helmet. "I thought you guys left me!" He couldn't tell if he was angry or relieved.

"You fell back less than a second before we left, we didn't have time to react!" Rosso apologized, as he and Verde walked over to him.

"Whatever, you better not abandon me like that again."

"... What are three kids in costumes doing here?" An unfamiliar voice demanded from behind them. The source turned out to be a tall, muscular brown bird with a cybernetic eye, wearing lots of neon pink and green, standing next to Vostok. At the moment, he looked less like a time pirate and more like an angry parent.

"This is the Duck Guard, didn't the agents we sent to retrieve you explain anything?"

The ducks in question cautiously approached him. "You, uh, must be the Raider, right?" Rosso guessed.

"Damn right I am. You're dressed kinda like Paperinik, why?"

"Well, he's our uncle, and after he disappeared-"

"PK went missing and now I’ve gotta babysit for him?!" Raider angrily tapped something into one of his wristbands. "I'm going to go find him, then we can deal with whatever these kids are here for."

"Wait! There's quite literally no time!" Vostok grabbed his arm.

Raider yanked his arm away from him with a growl, but stopped typing. "The experiment. I know. But you expect me to bring these ducklings with me on a high-stakes theft? I'd rather go alone."

"Hey! We came this far, we can do this!" Blu protested.

Verde rolled his eyes. "Did you forget the part where they kidnapped us and blackmailed us into helping them?"

"You. Blackmailed. A bunch of _children_? I know we're criminals, but I didn't realize while I was gone we threw out morals altogether!"

"Uh, Mr. Raider, sir?" Rosso tried. Raider made an effort to calm some of the seething rage he'd just been directing at Vostok, then turned to the Duck Guard. "While we didn't want to work with the... people our uncle usually fights, we _are_ trying to take care of our Duckburg until we find our uncle. We want to help."

"Yeah, we probably would've found a more dangerous way to try to do something if the Organization hadn't made us help with their plan," Verde added.

Blu shrugged. "We're pretty stubborn, and we kind of need there to be a Duckburg for our uncle to come back to."

Something about the Raider seemed to soften just slightly, but he covered it up with a grumble. "Alright. Fine. You three can come with me, just so you don't kill yourselves trying something else. But then I'm taking you right back to your time."

"Do you want to hear an explanation of how we were able to free the Raider from chronostatic prison before you leave?" Vostok offered, almost excitedly.

Rosso opened his mouth to respond with something along the lines of _yes, absolutely_ , but picking up on Raider's not-so-subtle head shaking, Verde wisely beat him to answering. " _No_ , thanks, there's no time, maybe later, sorry!"

Vostok handed Rosso a small disc. "Here's a whole holo-powerpoint about it, in case you don't return," he said, with a slightly foreboding edge that made the Raider frown.

"The short version is that only my image is locked up by the time police. They don't know I'm here. Which is why we should get moving, so I can get to taking advantage of that once we're done."

At some point during the conversation, the council had re-entered the room, and loomed just behind the Duck Guard. "The Raider is right. The 24th century was just destroyed," the one with the mohawk said, causing the three to whirl around in surprise and face them.

"Luckily, your mission now is simple," the lady said, gesturing to a holoprojection behind her displaying something shaped vaguely like a weird blue backpack made of metal. "You just need to deactivate this chronal unit to stop the experiment. But it should go without saying that you won't get a second chance, should you fail."

That last remark was punctuated with a glare that felt directed at Blu, but the council said nothing else, and swiftly left the room again.

The Raider studied Blu. "What does she have against you?" 

"I guess she blames me for Newton and my brothers leaving me behind during the last mission?"

"You two deserted your brother while under fire in a time police station?" He narrowed his eyes. "I'd do the exact same to your uncle, of course," he quickly amended. "But why?"

"It wasn't on purpose! One of the time police fired and knocked him out of range right before we left."

"We didn't even have time to realize he was gone before Newton left again!"

The Raider put a hand on Blu's shoulder in a gesture that almost seemed like it could be reassuring if he weren't a notorious criminal. "Guess I'll have to keep a better eye on you, then. Your uncle would kill me if he found out I lost track of one of you while he was gone."

"Uh, thanks?" Blu responded after a moment, glancing warily at the huge hand weighing down his shoulder.

"Hey, you know we're on a bit of a tight schedule here! We've narrowed down the location of the chronal unit to the central core of the lab, where the experiment is taking place. You need to get going!"

"Yeah, we get it, Vostok. Come on, boys."

A quick jump through time, and they found themselves standing at the edge of a large field, with some kind of science center in the middle. Given everything going on, they were pretty certain the futuristic white building was where the experiment they're supposed to stop is taking place.

The Raider offered them each a metal bracelet. "It'll keep the sentries from registering you. Put them on," he ordered, after being met with three skeptical looks.

After doing so, they didn't feel any different, but he gestured for them to keep moving, so they cautiously stepped out into the meadow...

Just in time to nearly be crushed by a passing robot sentry. It was easily over twice the Raider's height, and vaguely resembled a pale, heavily armed robot T. Rex. Luckily, the bracelets worked, and it completely overlooked them as it scanned and continued on.

"See? I was fairly certain that would work, and you're fine!" The Raider called, now walking ahead of them.

"Fairly'?!?" Rosso shouted indignantly, but his brothers ushered him onward. 

When they reached the center, Blu was suddenly aware of a glaringly obvious oversight. "Uh, Raider? How do we... get in?"

"That's the easy part," Raider said, pressing a button on his bracer. A vortex similar to time travel swirled around them, and they appeared inside the building, presumably just on the other side of the wall they'd been staring at. "Space-time folds! Rather handy when you know where you're going, but without specific coordinates we'll have to go on foot from here." 

Rosso glanced around. "At least we're still undetected. Now we just need to figure out where we're going."

"Uhh... how 'bout that way?" Blu suggested, pointing to one end of the hallway they stood in.

"Yeah, real great idea, rushing blindly in a random direction. We could at least try to find some scientists to follow or a computer to ask for directions while we're at it, right?"

"But we can totally still go in the direction I picked to try to find them," Blu insisted, crossing his arms.

"Now that you've wasted plenty of our very limited time arguing, boys, can we get back to actually finding the chronal unit?"

Rosso grumbled something about the importance of planning, but it went largely ignored as the four of them continued in the direction Blu had suggested. The hallways were silent save for their quiet footsteps as they slunk around, and every room they passed seemed to be empty. Was everybody already at the experiment?

Verde was about to suggest... something, he wasn't sure what, but clearly this wasn't working, when he picked up on some faint voices down the corridor.

"Guys!" he whispered. "I hear something up ahead!"

Blu's face lit up. "Finally! If we had to stay quiet like that any more I think I would've exploded."

"Well, you're technically not wrong, considering we're trying to stop a huge time catastrophe-"

"Not the time! If we keep standing here we might lose them!"

"We could just make them tell us where the experiment is, wouldn't that be faster?" The Raider asked, as they cautiously approached the room the voices were coming from.

"Not when they realize there are intruders and sound the alarm, no!" 

Verde peeked around the corner as Raider and Rosso continued to whisper angrily behind him. He could see a security guard and three figures in the room- one of them in a futuristic green suit, one in some kind of yellow hazmat suit, and one in deep blue robes. The security guard stood by the only other door, and he looked pretty tough. But if they just listened in on the conversation, maybe...

"You can't solve everything with reckless force!"

"What do you think your uncle was doing most of the time? He was always entertaining to fight."

"That does sound like him..."

"You're not helping, Blu!"

"Guys!" Verde interrupted, except this time, his whispering wasn't _quite_ as much actual _whispering_. Immediately, they heard sounds of movement from inside the room.

"Mister Governor, perhaps we should move this discussion into the laboratory," came from the room, which- score- now they'd be able to follow those guys right to the lab! They heard the door on the other side of the room slide open, and more shuffling. Then- "Dr. Cantor, please have security take care of any intruders in the facility."

That was... significantly less good. Verde scanned the faces of his teammates; it didn't look like Raider had any bright ideas, and neither did his brothers. 

"Right away, Dr. Yamato. I'll meet you in the laboratory as soon as I can," a female voice replied to the first person. Following the voice was the foreboding sound of footsteps approaching the door.

The other three moved to run, but Verde took a deep breath. "I’m gonna try to follow them to the lab. There’s no way we’re gonna find it in time like this."

His brothers exchanged looks containing degrees of both concern and skepticism, but the Raider scooped them up before they had a chance to respond. "Your funeral, kid.” And then he bolted.

Based on his glimpse into the room, if he got past whoever was coming towards him, he could tail the other two right to the lab. All he had to do was take the time thing to stop the experiment, and then he could… find his brothers again, probably?

He maybe could’ve thought ahead a little bit more with this one before going out of his way to sign himself up for it. Who was he, Dewey? Being a superhero was such a pain sometimes. But this was the kind of impulsive thing Uncle Donald would've done, and things always turned out okay in the end for him. So it was fine. Right?

Whether it was actually fine or not would have to be figured out later, because the lady in the green suit stepped into the hallway. He froze, and her initial sweep of the hallway seemed to miss him (probably because she had her head tilted like she was expecting someone taller).

But then she noticed him out of the corner of her eye, and immediately there was a gun thing in his face. “Who are you, and how did you get in here?”

“That’s a great question! I’m, um…” he started, then mentally kicked himself. This wasn’t getting caught in a lie and trying to cover up, all he needed was a flick of his wrist and he wouldn’t have to worry about her anymore because she’d be _paralyzed_.

Which is what he did, and somehow, it worked. Unfortunately, it meant she was still blocking the doorway, but he managed to carefully push her out of the way enough to slip by.

He got a better look at the room now that he was darting through it, but it was so empty there really wasn’t anything new to see. The white walls blended into the white floor seamlessly- it looked like he was going through a void- and the only thing left in the room was the abandoned table and chairs.

Yeesh. Did everybody forget everything about _style_ in the future?

Not that he had time to complain. The Raider was the only one with the official countdown to the experiment, but actually? Maybe it was better _not_ to know exactly how long until he was obliterated.

The guard was gone, so he had no problem going through the other door and into… another hallway. Exciting. But he could hear faint talking ahead, so he focused on that as he crept onward.

After what felt like an eternity of maze-like passageways, the sound of a door opening ahead signalled him it was time to catch up. It probably had some kind of security lock on it, especially if it was as heavy as it sounded and they knew about the intruders now.

He managed to catch his foot in the door right before it closed- it was a big door that looked like it was supposed to seal like an airlock, but luckily it was just _loud_ when sealing, not heavy, and didn't crush his foot. When he slowly, carefully pushed it back open enough to squeeze into the lab, he realized two things immediately: 

1) He hadn't been following the scientists from the room, but the security guard who left after them, and 2) The experiment was already in progress.

“Dr. Cantor isn't here to perform her step, as she's assisting with security, so Dr. Puskin, you will take her place. Please isolate the antimatter samples.” That was one of the guys he saw leave the room talking, the one in the yellow hazmat suit. Now that he was paying attention, actually, he was the only person in the room who wasn't wearing a helmet and suit. 

He immediately regretted noticing that. Hopefully it was just _in case_ and not _necessary_?

“The chronal unit is ready for canalization, Doctor,” one of the scientists said, snapping him back to reality. Watching the movement in the center of the room, the chronal unit thingy was only loosely secured by a thin mechanical claw coming from the ceiling. It'd be pretty easy to snag if he could just get to it. 

But _how_ to get to it…

Well, this was the future, right? Maybe they'd actually listen if he just told the truth for once?

He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at the guy in yellow. “Hey, uh…” What was his name, what was his name?? “Doctor… Dr. Yammo? Uh, I'm from the future, and I'm here to warn you! Your experiment is going to go wrong and destroy all of time! And like, blow up, I think!”

Okay, so that was only mostly the truth. It didn’t really matter anyway, since he was met with silence, several glares, and a security guard running at him. So much for honesty hour.

“No, seriously! Just-” he narrowly dodged out of the way of the guard. Oh, great, and now the guy was pulling out a gun. Verde fired up the booster function in his wrist blasters, and charged at the unit from the air, only for a lucky shot from the guard to hit one of the boosters dead-on. The functioning booster, however, was still enough to take him to the unit, and he swapped it to laser mode to cut the unit free from the claw thing.

The guard stopped shooting at him, probably because he didn't want to damage it. Or it might've been one shot from exploding? He really didn't want to know.

But now, with only one working blaster and airlocked doors, there was no good way to get out or get down from where he was hanging from the claw.

Although the faint, tornado-like swirling he saw in front of the far laboratory door made him reconsider. The forms of his brothers and the Raider materialized, and Blu tossed his shield to him. It drew the attention of everyone in the room to them, but as Verde caught the shield and frantically pressed buttons until he activated manual flight mode, he couldn't bring himself to care too much. He directed it back over to his brother, and Blu caught the shield as Verde dropped down in front of them.

“What happened to your _blaster_?” Rosso asked, frowning at the cracked, sparking device in question.

“Now's not the best time to explain, can we reschedule this interrogation?” Rosso didn't appreciate his sarcasm, but finally noticed the lab's worth of angry people coming at them. 

“Hey, uh, Raider, can you take us back?” Blu blocked a shot from the guard- who seemed to be the only one with a weapon, at least- with his shield. “Like, before I get shot again would be great for me.”

The Raider frowned at the chronal unit, still over in Verde's hands, but started the time jump. After pressing the button, he put his (comparably giant) hand on Blu's shoulder like he'd done earlier, and the duckling elected to ignore it as much as possible (even if it did make him feel a little, tiny bit better about the thing that definitely hadn't really been bothering him anyway).

In what felt like a moment, they were on top of Duckburg's clock tower, the time on which indicating he took them back to a few seconds after they'd originally left. He crossed his arms expectantly.

“... What?” Blu asked.

“I've taken you back to your own time, rather than the 23rd century as the Council had requested. They were planning to get rid of the three of you, maybe send you to the Cretaceous period or some other dead end of the timeline. Now I expect something in return.”

“So you want the chronal unit?” Rosso took it from his brother- who seemed relieved to no longer be holding it- and handed it to him. “I don't know why, but I guess we don't have anything to do with it.”

“Finally! Now, I can repair my othership!” He stashed the unit away into some unseen pocket. When the boys didn't react, he added, “That's the device your uncle locked me up for trying to create last time. I wasn't hoping for a _fight_ , but your expressions were so blank…”

Rosso shook his head. “I read all about it, actually! It lets you travel to other dimensions. I thought the time police only arrested you because you were _stealing_ the final component. You know the time police of our dimension couldn't care less about _other_ dimensions, right? 

“We actually have a friend from another dimension who's stuck here because they won't even try to help!” Blu crossed his arms.

“Hah, thinking you might've joined the wrong side now?” He smiled, but there was a hint of concern in his voice that Rosso couldn't place the exact cause of.

“Well, I wouldn't go _that_ far-”

“Man, I think 'both’ sides are kind of a mess. We're just sticking on the 'Duck Guard’ side.” Verde answered for him.

That seemed to relax whatever worry the Raider might've had for a second there, and he laughed.

“So… are you gonna use it right now…?” Rosso asked, almost excited.

“I think I need a vacation first, now that my plan's actually coming together. Maybe I'll see you boys again sometime.” 

He waved, and then he was gone, off to who knows where and when.

The triplets ended up back at Daisy's about ten minutes, maybe a little more, after they'd first left to deal with Newton and Vostok at the Duckmall Center. Daisy was finishing the last bits of her breakfast as they walked back into the kitchen.

“Boys! You're back sooner than I expected.” She smiled. “Did you find the bats you were looking for?”

“Bats?” Dewey asked, frowning. Louie elbowed him.

“Uh, yes! We found- there was this great spot to watch them, and I was able to, uh, check all the things we were looking for off my list pretty quickly.” Huey replied, with all the certainty and confidence of someone walking across a tightrope for the first time.

“Dewey got a little sidetracked and forgot what we had gone out for in the first place,” Louie added, with infinitely more ease.

An unreadable look crossed Daisy's face for just a moment, and then it shifted back into the smile. “Well, I'm glad you had fun.”

When the trio left the kitchen, she glanced back at the news, which was still going on about the Duck Guard disappearing with two criminals (it had gone into Angus’ segment).

“And that's why these three little _menaces_ are-”

“Oh, that's enough of that,” she sighed, and turned off the TV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm planning to do #17, Shooting Star, next! it'll have xadhoom in it, and you KNOW it'll be fun when she finds out donald is missing
> 
> also, hey, the Raider has an actually functioning othership in this fic now? that's definitely not what happened in canon. could be important someday, like geena not being dead. hmm. The World May Never Know....

**Author's Note:**

> next chapter'll be the first adventure I'm (re?)writing with them, #11 (Urk)! I'm probably not going to write the triplets going through Every Single PKNA Issue, so if you have a specific adventure you'd like to see, feel free to let me know in the comments!! honestly suggestions, just in general, are totally welcome c:


End file.
